Integrated amp for B&W 805S under $1200?


Hello everyone,

I got a great deal on a B&W 805S earlier this year. Unfortunately, I haven't found the "right" amplifier for it yet, given my budget and musical tastes. So please help a new audiophile!

I mostly listen to classical music, and also some opera and jazz. So I want an amplifier that does justice to the grand symphony sound (think Mahler's Fifth or Tchaiokovsky's Sixth). Sounding musical is very important also: in particular, in violin and piano.

I had a Rotel 1062 from my older B&W CM1. I felt that it struggled with the B&W 805s and the sound was harsh. I next tried the Musical Fidelity A3.5. It sounded much better and I was pretty satisfied. But I noticed I was getting listener fatigue after listening to a moderately loud volume after an hour or so. I next tried a YBA YA201. Wow, musical! Strings and vocals sounded incredibly silky smooth on it. It brought to life my favorite violin and cello concertos (Mendelssohn, Elgar) and Ella Fitzgerald just sounded wonderful. Unfortunately, it was weak on pianos (sounded a bit muffled) and lacked a wide soundstage.

So here I am, trying to find another integrated amplifier. I'm a grad student so $1200 is a somewhat hard limit. Any suggestions? I was considering a Naim Nait 5, a Classe CAP151, or a Plinius 8200.

My CD player is a Rega Apollo.

Thanks in advance,
Mike
mabdelmalek

Showing 1 response by musicnoise

I have heard the 805S' driven with a mcintosh 6900 integrated, Rotel separates, and a 100w Yamaha reciever (yes, I said it, "receiver"). The 805 got about as loud as you would want to go on a bookshelf (about 90 db peaks on Von Karajan's Eroica from 1963 on DG (CD), driven by the reciever, and I heard no distortion. Out of the bunch, the mcintosh sounded the best, but my second choice would not be the Rotels. Bryston makes a nice 100 watt integrated also, which you may be able to find for around 1200 not new but I only heard it driving Dali's and Dynaudio consumers and have a sneaky suscpicion that it may be a little harsh for the B&W's, particularly with classical music. For my ears ( and other than an occasional nostalgic listen to the Stones or Janis I listen to classical 99.5 hours out of 100) the 805 sounded very nice without a sub, to get down low you will need a sub anyway. Only relatively few works will leave you somewhat lacking - heavy bass such as Mahler's 9th for example - you can get to ok levels say 90 db peaks with the 805 and to do so won't actually take more than 50 watts in a normal room of say 8 ft. ceilings and 12 by 20 positioned about 6 feet away. As far as musical, the 805S is really hard to beat - for anything other than concert levels for big bass heavy works, I do not think I heard any speaker sound better than the 805S - and that includes the 802D, Focal's beryllium tweeter floorstander listed at around 10k, Dali's Helicon 4 Mk II, and the magnepan 3.6.